After all your proofing, revising, editing and re-editing, your long hours of researching the publishing companies and getting to know the industry more intimately, all the careful, loving dedication you’ve pored into your work, all that’s left is to wait for them to determine the fate of your book. You wait 2, 3, 4, and maybe even 6 months. You actually forget to whom you’ve last submitted and when that respective waiting period is over. But when you do remember, the last days of the wait are the toughest.
When the waiting period has come and gone and you’ve heard nothing, sometimes you give them a few extra days, in case their offices flooded, caught fire, or have been vandalized by a giant, enraged ape. Anything that might’ve prevented them from getting to your manuscript or sending out your acceptance letter and lucrative contract.
Then the realization hits: they've rejected your book. What do you do now?
You move on to the next round.